Overcoming the Shadow
by MistressArafaxdeep
Summary: The sequel to One Shot at Love. Involves the children of the pairings already established in the first part...If Akane's going to attain the goal set before her at birth, she's going to need a little help.


**Gaaaahh!!! I finally finished it. It took me forever to write the last five paragraphs. FOREVER! Umm...if you get confused with all of the children, I included a family tree type thing at the end. This will mostly focus on Itachi and Temari's kids, Akane and Raiden, but there will be some sidestory action going on. And you will probably note that this is a little different from what I usually write.**

* * *

"RAIDEN!" an enraged, decidedly female voice shrieked.

"Oh crap," the black haired teenager said.

"What did you do this time?" his teammate asked him.

"I, uh…never mind."

"Raiden, you're hopeless," the other boy responded.

"Just don't tell her that you saw me, okay?"

The boy nodded, and Raiden dashed off to find a suitable hiding spot.

"Ren, where did he go?" the girl asked the young man. He could see how angry she was so he decided to at least try to protect his teammate from her wrath.

Ren shrugged. "I don't know, Akane," he lied.

The girl growled at him. "Don't you dare lie to me. I know he was here. I can sense his freaking chakra."

Akane was a scary girl. He would never want to be on the receiving end of her assault, which was why he was so glad that they were on the same team. He didn't know how Raiden had survived living with his sister for as long as he had. She was powerful, ruthless, temperamental, and she never held anything back. She got mad at Raiden all the time, and every single time it resulted in him getting pummeled by her. This time would be no exception.

Still Ren decided to give his friend more of an opportunity to escape his sister's wrath. "I'm not lying to you," he said to her.

She grabbed him by his throat and pushed him against the nearest tree. "Where did he go?" she demanded of him in a malicious voice.

He gulped. He did not want to get any further on her bad side, so he stammered, "He went over there." He pointed in the direction Raiden had run off. Akane glanced in the direction he'd pointed, dropped him, and turned on her heel, marching purposefully into the trees. Ren rubbed his neck where she been holding him. Too bad for Raiden. He wasn't going to risk getting involved.

Their sensei appeared next to him. "Do you know what he did this time?" Naruto asked him.

Ren shrugged. "He didn't say exactly."

Naruto smiled. "She treats him exactly how Sakura treated me."

"You mean the Kazekage's wife, right?" he asked a in a tone that had a hint of embarrassment.

"Yep, that's her." The Hokage hadn't caught it. Ren was thankful for that. He was too embarrassed to go around telling people he had a crush on Manami, the Kazekage's daughter.

"The Kazekage's going to be here today, right? I mean, there is a kage meeting today?" Ren asked.

Naruto thought about it. "Actually, yeah. That should be starting pretty soon. I'll see you guys around nine tomorrow."

Ren nodded and ran off to find Raiden and Akane. Of course, he saw Akane walking back towards him looking much less angry than she had. Which could only mean she'd already vented on Raiden. The poor guy. "Thank you, Ren," she said impassively as she passed him. He stared after as she walked away, hoping she hadn't damaged her brother too much.

Ren continued until he saw his friend lying on the ground. He didn't look too hurt, except for the giant shiner that was forming on his eye, the various other bruises, and the little bit of blood that was flowing out of a nostril, the result of a direct hit to the bridge of his nose. He looked down at Raiden who was staring up at the sky. "I see why your dad likes doing this so much," Raiden said to Ren.

Ren shook his head. "Everything is too troublesome for my dad. That or it's 'a drag,'" Ren said, mimicking the way Shikamaru said the phrase. Raiden laughed and sat up.

Ren smiled at him, and then asked. "Hey, you're cousin's coming over today, right?"

Raiden nodded. "Yep she is. I can try to set you up with her." Raiden was the only person who knew about Ren's interest in Manami. Ren nodded enthusiastically at the suggestion. "I'm not making any promises though. She's just as scary as Akane. I don't really know what you see in her…"

"She's gorgeous," Ren answered his eyes getting all starry.

Raiden shook his head. "Dude, she's my cousin. It's almost like you're saying it about my sister."

Ren looked at him. "Oh, you're sister's good looking too. I guess I'm just too scared of her to have much interest in her."

Raiden gave his friend a look filled with pity. "Apparently you don't know Manami that well. You get to know her…you'll see just how much like Akane she is. And don't ever tell me that my sister's attractive again."

Ren brushed off his friend's remark. "So what exactly did you do to her this time?" Ren asked, indicating the beating Raiden had received.

He gave his friend a sheepish grin. "Umm…well, I kinda took one of her Sharingan books. Without asking permission. It was the one she asked Dad for. She's obsessed with overpowering _him_," he said referring to his uncle, Sasuke. "But yeah, I took it because I wanted to try to learn how to make use of mine more effectively. And she wasn't happy when she couldn't find it, and then Mom told her that she'd found the book in my room. So she came after me."

Raiden threw in a shrug for good measure. This was typical behavior for Akane, so there wasn't much point in being surprised by her angry outburst. "Well, I guess I better get home. Mom's going to be pretty worried about me since she would know that Akane beat me up." He rubbed a particularly nasty bruise on his arm. "You can come over if you like," he offered.

Ren nodded. "Yeah, sure. That way I'll be there when Manami gets there."

Raiden rolled his eyes. "When she totally destroys all of the images you have of her, leaving you utterly lost and heartbroken, don't tell me that I didn't warn you." Ren was lost in thought thinking about Manami so he totally ignored Raiden's statement. Raiden just shook his head and started walking home.

* * *

When he got there, Temari was in fact worried about him, but upon seeing him standing and walking on his own, she calmed down considerably. "I thought that was going to be bad," she admitted. "Akane seems to be getting in bad moods more frequently these days. Sorry that I ratted you out, Raiden."

He shrugged at his mom. "It's okay. I'm used to it."

She shook her head, and then noticed Ren standing behind her son. "Oh, hello Ren," she said.

He gave her a quiet, "Hello," the kind you say to your friend's intimidating parents. Itachi walked into the kitchen at that moment, trailed by seven year old daughter, Hotaru, who happened to be begging for a Popsicle. Raiden looked down at his little sister and smiled. She saw him and left Itachi's side to see her big brother, a smile on her face.

"Big brother," she said. He picked her up.

"Hey there, Hotaru! Did you have fun at the academy today?"

She nodded vigorously. "We were practicing throwing kunai! It was so much fun. Do you think you'd go out and practice with me later?"

He nodded. "You bet. But I don't think tonight would be the best. Uncle Gaara, Uncle Kankurou, Aunt Sakura and Aunt Mizuko are coming over. You're probably going to want to play with Kenta, right?"

The blond haired girl nodded. Raiden put her down then tossled her blonde hair. She gave him a big grin, and then ran back over to pester Itachi about the Popsicle once more. He sighed and got her one from the freezer. She thanked him and then ran off. Itachi simply shook his head at his more normal and outgoing daughter.

Ren and Raiden left the room leaving Itachi there with Temari. He wrapped his arms around her waist and settled his chin on her shoulder. She looked over her shoulder at him. "Hey Itachi. You should tell Akane to stop losing her temper with Raiden."

"Sure, I can try. But she probably won't listen to anything I say. She's more focused on beating Sasuke than he was on killing me."

"Well I'd appreciate it if you'd try. She's too strong to be taking her anger out on her brother physically. One of these days, she'll kill him."

"I know," Itachi said sadly. "It's just that she's so frustrated right now. She can't figure out how to activate it."

Temari nodded. "I know. She'll get it someday. But maybe she should take a little break from all of that training and studying. And with all the time that they're gone on missions…"

Itachi kissed her neck, the air he exhaled tickling Temari's skin. "Calm down, Temari. She'll be fine. I'll talk to her when she gets home."

Temari turned around, throwing her arms around him. "Thank you." They met each other in a fiery kiss. Far too infrequently did they have a chance to be alone with each other. Temari had become a Konoha shinobi and had been teaching at the academy. Itachi really didn't do much of anything. He wasn't allowed to leave unless he was in Temari's company, and the only place Temari really went was Suna to visit her family. So pretty much he was the stay at home dad. He helped Raiden and Akane train though, and he himself kept his skills up to par.

Kissing his neck, Temari ran her fingernails across his stomach. Itachi drew in a sharp breath. He bit at her neck, then moving up to her ear, whispered, "You should stop."

She looked up at him mischievously. "But I don't want to."

He sighed. "Fine, but we shouldn't do this in the kitchen. What if Hotaru comes in?"

Temari nodded, and she grabbed his hand and led him to the bedroom.

* * *

Temari's entire family showed up two hours later. Kankurou and Mizuko's daughter, Kazuko, decided to play with Hotaru and Kenta, Gaara and Sakura's son. Manami immediately decided to look for her cousin. This of course was a big letdown for Ren, so Raiden offered to go with Manami to find Akane, for the sole purpose of allowing his friend to spend some time with his cousin.

Raiden knew better than to say much to Manami. After all, she was very similar to his sister in so many ways. But Ren hadn't listened to anything that he'd said about her. So Ren was trying to make small talk with her. This of course ended up with Ren receiving a death glare, from which he cowered and shot Raiden a look that screamed, "Help me please!" Raiden just shrugged. He'd already told him the truth about Manami. It wasn't his fault that his hopelessly in love friend hadn't heeded his warning.

They found Akane in her favorite training spot. She was sitting in a tree resting her head against the trunk. She looked down, and seeing Manami, she gracefully jumped down. "Hello," she greeted them all indifferently.

Ren, who had already regretted the decision to come along, started backing away. "Uh…hey, Akane, we, uh…just wanted to make sure Manami got here safe…"

Akane just stared at him. Raiden shot his sister a grin. "We'll be leaving you two now. Have fun."

She narrowed her eyes at him. He just shook his head at her and turned around. "Alright, let's go Ren."

So Ren and Raiden left, leaving the emotionally devoid cousins to themselves. "It's good to see you Akane," Manami said flatly.

"Yes, it is," Akane agreed. Truthfully, the two of them were really close, were actually best friends. They cared about each other deeply. It was just that each of them had limited outgoing qualities and so their friendship and time spent together was mostly in silence. And they appreciated that, since they were both pestered to no end by their respective village's male population.

Of course, now the amount of fan boys they had was greatly reduced. They were both very powerful. Akane had kicked the butts of any who got too enthusiastic (and for her too enthusiastic meant that they looked at her for longer than thirty seconds). She had a proficiency for fire, and she utilized her Sharingan almost constantly. But she was trying to increase its level at the moment, so that she could surpass her uncle's abilities.

Manami's solution had been to give them a death glare. She had a potent glare, capable of sending grown men running and crying. Plus she had some ability to manipulate sand, a trait she'd inherited from her father. Mostly though, she used precise chakra control to give the offending boy a super powerful punch to the face. She didn't know it, but it was a quality she'd gotten from her mother.

Akane nodded at Manami, giving her a semblance of a smile, and said, "Let's go." Manami leapt at her cousin, a kunai in her hand. That was what the two of them did for fun. They fought against each other to improve their own skills.

* * *

Raiden and Ren made their way home. Ren moped the whole way because as Raiden had warned him, Manami was just like Akane. Walking in the door, Ren spotted the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. And she was playing with the two small children in the living room. He nudged Raiden, whispering, "Who's that?"

Raiden rolled his eyes. "My other cousin, Kazuko."

And Ren proceeded to walk up to her googly-eyed. "Hi, I'm Ren," he introduced himself.

She smiled shyly. "I'm Kazuko. Are you one of Raiden's friends?" she asked.

He smiled and nodded. "Yep. We're on the same team." The two continued flirting. Raiden shook his head. He was glad to see his friend had gotten over his crush so easily, but he wasn't exactly pleased with the fact that less than ten minutes later he'd fallen in love with his other cousin. He stood up, leaving Ren alone with Kazuko. He took Hotaru and Kenta with him, so that the two could flirt in private.

* * *

Raiden had just gotten Hotaru and Kenta to go to bed when Manami and Akane made their way home. Itachi called Akane over to him and the two were locked in a deep conversation. Raiden assumed it had something to do with him, about how she treated him. He shrugged it off. It wasn't like he really minded when she beat him up. He just wished that he could talk to her. She always seemed so alone in her own little world, and being her brother he felt concern for her well-being. The tight shell she hid herself in, wasn't the healthiest thing for her.

Akane sulked away from Itachi, slinking off to her room with Manami following. Itachi walked over to his son. "Don't worry about her," he told Raiden. "She'll be okay. She's right on the edge of taking her Sharingan to the next level. Once she does that, she'll be able to beat Sasuke, and then she won't be a problem anymore."

Raiden nodded. "Got it Dad. I wish there was some way that I could help her. To apologize for taking her stuff and making her mad at me."

Temari had heard there conversation and said, "You know Raiden, she should be the one apologizing to you."

"No Mom. It is my fault. I should have known better. If I would ever think my actions through, she wouldn't get mad at me."

Temari and Itachi shrugged at their determined son. Neither really thought that he had anything to apologize for, but if he felt so strongly about the subject, they were willing to let him go. He walked to his bedroom and sat down on his bed. Flopping onto his back he thought about what he could do to help his sister out.

Sitting up abruptly he stated to himself excitedly, "That's the perfect idea!"

* * *

A Family Tree Thingy….with gender and age because the children are a little confusing

Itachi and Temari: **Akane** (F, 15), **Raiden** (M, 15), **Hotaru** (F, 8)

Gaara and Sakura: **Manami** (F, 16), **Kenta** (M, 10)

Kankurou and Mizuko: **Kazuko** (F, 14)

Shikamaru and Ino: **Ren** (M, 16)

**Hope you enjoyed this look into the future. I'll be putting up more eventually. Eventually being the keyword, because at the moment I'm more focused on thte Kimimaro story. Such is life, eh? Please leave me reviews, suggestions and ways to improve are always appreciated.**


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